Rumors have been swirling for months now that Spider-Man, whose movie life belongs to Sony, will be joining the Marvel cinematic universe, which is owned by Disney.
Well, rumor no more. It is happening.
Marvel broke the news yesterday. Here are the most important highlights:
1. Spider-Man will first appear in a Disney movie within the Marvel cinematic universe.
2. The next stand-alone Spider-Man movie will be released by Sony on July 28, 2017. And though Sony is releasing it, it will be coproduced by Marvel Studios and its mastermind, Kevin Feige, and Sony's former head Amy Pascal.
3. The door is open to have characters from the MCU (Iron Man, Thor and so on) appear in the new Spider-Man movies at Sony.
4. Here's the most important quote, from Kevin Feige: "Marvel's involvement will hopefully deliver the creative continuity and authenticity that fans demand from the MCU. I am equally excited for the opportunity to have Spider-Man appear in the MCU, something which both we at Marvel, and fans alike, have been looking forward to for years."
Since Spidey will first appear in an MCU movie, and that movie will have to be released before July 28, 2017, it rules out the most recent Internet buzz that said Spidey would actually be the star of the already announced Avengers: Infinity War -- Part 1 since that movie won't hit theaters until May 4, 2018. So what Marvel movies do hit before then?
Avengers: Age of Ultron - May 1, 2015
Ant-Man - July 17, 2015
Captain America: Civil War - May 6, 2016
Doctor Strange - November 4, 2016
Guardians of the Galaxy 2 - May 5, 2017
It's probably too late for anything but a cameo in Age of Ultron or Ant-Man, so fans can probably rule those two out. It wouldn't really make much sense to have the wall-crawler show up in the space-y worlds of Guardians of the Galaxy 2, either, so the likely candidates are the 2016 duo of Captain America: Civil War or Doctor Strange.
They have given themselves a bit of new breathing room, however, for the movies that will arrive post-Spider-Man. Here are their new release dates:
Thor: Ragnarok - November 3, 2017 (was July 28, 2017)
Black Panther - July 6, 2018 (was November 3, 2017)
Captain Marvel - November 2, 2018 (was July 6, 2018)
Inhumans - July 12, 2019 (was November 2, 2019)
